Nawang Tsering Shakspo
The15-day hunger strike by the Path Yatris led by environmentalist Sonam Wangchuk, taking the four-point agenda of the Apex Body and the KDA, such as the grant of Statehood to Ladakh or Constitutional Safeguard under the Sixth Schedule, two Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha seat and filling up of over 10,000 vacancies in the Government departments, was historic in the recent political history of Ladakh.
Though, in the past, Ladakhis, being dwellers of a landlocked region, would walk and cover long distances such as to Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet and Yarkand in Xinjiang in the East, Zanskar and Punjab in the South, Kashmir and Skardu in the North and beyond for education or trade purposes, the recent one-month Path Yatra was a novel experiment and an unprecedented happening in a democratic country like India.
Several rounds of dialogues initiated by the government of India to resolve the people’s grievances, as a result of the bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and carving out of the Union territory of Ladakh, had failed and the talks came to a stop without any reason made known by the Central Government. Due to this reason, taking the four-point agenda of the Apex Body and the KDA under the leadership of Sonam Wangchuk, people walked from Leh to Delhi, beginning the Ist of September, 2024, after a rally held at the NSD Stadium that was attended people of all walks of the society to pressure the Government to resume the talk and fulfill their demands. The Yatra was aimed to culminate at the Raj Ghat, New Delhi, on 2nd October, 2024, to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, on the solemn occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
The Path Yatris began their walk on September 1, 2024, to cover the 850 km-long distance from Leh to New Delhi, facing all sorts of problems and issues due to the rough and rugged roads, crossing difficult mountain passes such as Taglang La, the highest pass on Leh-Manali road, with an elevation of 5,328 meters (17,480 ft): Baralach pass 4,850 meters (15,910 ft): and other such mountain passes. I too walked to show my solidarity with the Path Yatris, but unfortunately I had to abandon due to blisters on my feet after some kms, but the other brave Yatris continued non-stop, and the team initially had more than three hundred young and old people under the dynamic leadership of Sonam Wangchuk.
They moved forward, without looking back. On the way, the Path Yatris were received well by the people all the way from Leh to Delhi, offered food and shelter in Dharmashalas, guest houses and Gurudwaras. But, after reaching the Singhu border near New Delhi, the Pad Yatris were detained by the Delhi Police under the pretext of Section 144 in Delhi. After detention for three days and putting much efforts by the Path Yatris and their leaders, the Yatris were escorted to Delhi in the night of October 2nd to Gandhi Samadhi, and were allowed to pay their obeisance to the Father of the Nation. After the culmination of the walk, the Yatris sought an audience with the top functionaries of the Government of India such as the Prime Minister or Home Minister of India to apprise them of the hopes and aspirations of the people of Ladakh. Unfortunately, the Path Yatris were not given any date for the resumption of talks, and this resulted in the Path Yatris sitting on Anshan (hunger strike) in the compound Ladakh Bhavan, Chanakya Puri, New Delhi.
Following the core principles of Gandhian philosophy such as truth (Satya), non-violence(ahinsa) , the Yatris began the fast commencing from October 7 and lasted till October 21. In between, hundreds of people from all over India reached the spot to show solidarity with the people sitting on Anshan. Due to the imposition of Section 144, most of the people were either chased away or not allowed to meet Sonam Wangchuk by the Delhi police. With the passage of time, the health of several agitators started deteriorating, including that of Sonam Wangchuk.
Under such circumstances, it seemed that there were no strong mass rallies in Ladakh. And I felt bad to an extent that I was compelled to write a WhatsApp message and also in Ladakh in the Media: “It is really distressing that the KDA and the Apex Body leaders were observing silence on the hunger strike of Sonam Wangchuk and 20 people who walked all the way from Leh to Delhi by covering over 800 km. And the Central govt too seemed to be not interested to settle the issue. Shall we allow these people to die in the streets of Delhi or ask them to break their hunger strike?. On humanitarian ground, we should not stay mute spectators, instead we need to look for an immediate solution”.
Maybe, this sounded a sort of reminder to the Apex Body leaders, and then a one-day hunger strike and rally was held at the NSD stadium one October 20, 2024, on Sonam Wangchuk’s and team’s getting into the 15th day of hunger strike. That day, beside the Apex Body leaders, the common Ladakhis also attended and they gave a call that leaders of all sections and communities must rush to New Delhi to compel Sonam to break his hunger strike as his life was precious for Ladakh.
On that day, even Jagat Guru Shankaryacharya Avimukteshwranandji reached the site in Leh and made an appeal to Sonam Wangchuk and others to break their hunger strike by saying he would be a bridge between Central Government and Ladakhi protesters.
In any case, now that Sonam Wangchuk has broken his hunger strike with the hope that some solution will come out instead of compelling him to resume fast again. That was following the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India handing over a letter stating that the High-Power Committee (HPC) under the chairmanship of Minister of State for Home Affairs Govt of India will resume the talks on 03.12. 2024, in New Delhi.
Let’s all hope that the talks this time will take place on a positive note, thereby leading to some definite progress in redressing the long-standing and rightful demands of the people of Ladakh who have suffered so much all these years.
(The author is Director, Centre for Research on Ladakh)
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